CriterionCast

The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 1 – Silent Ozu

This new podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Robert Nishimura give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. To start things off, David and Robert discuss Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies, a trio of formative works from early in the career of Yasujiro Ozu.

[Technical disclaimer: After the episode was recorded, we became aware of some slight but potentially distracting audio issues involving dropped sound and background noise. We chose to publish the track “as is,” but please be assured that we will correct these problems in future episodes.]

About the films:

In the late twenties and early thirties, Yasujiro Ozu was working steadily for Shochiku studios, honing his craft on dozens of silent films in various genres, from romantic melodramas to college comedies to gangster pictures’”and, of course, movies about families. In these three droll domestic films’”Tokyo Chorus, I Was Born, But . . . ,  and  Passing Fancy, presented here with all-new scores by renowned silent-film composer Donald Sosin’”Ozu movingly and humorously depicts middle-class struggles and the resentments between children and parents, establishing the emotional and aesthetic delicacy with which he would transform the landscape of cinema.

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Episode Links:

Tokyo Chorus:

I Was Born But…

Passing Fancy


Next time on the podcast:  Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse

Music for the show is from Fatboy Roberts’ Geek Remixed project.

Contact us:

David Blakeslee

David hosts the Criterion Reflections podcast, a series that reviews the films of the Criterion Collection in their chronological order of release. The series began in 2009 and those essays (covering the years 1921-1967) can be found via the website link provided below. In March 2016, the blog transferred to this site, and in August 2017, the blog changed over to a podcast format. David also contributes to other reviews and podcasts on this site. He lives near Grand Rapids, Michigan and works in social services. Twitter / Criterion Reflections